Sullivan links to a reader email that asks:I'm hearing from the same idiots as Markos.It also occurs to me that in a way McCain and Rove have actually simply taken over the liberal blogosphere in some way. They are being played.Let me get this straight -- if we all sat around and talked about how great Obama's speech was, then things would be much better for him? Really? People believe this tripe? I'll give Sullivan a pass. He was a winger not too long ago, so he hasn't seen, first hand like many of us have, just how effective "ignoring the other side" has worked. Just ask Kerry and the Swift Boat Vets....
Just a few examples---yesterday Obama gave a fantastic interview at the Service Forum. Did the liberal blogs even cover this? No.
He gave a great speech on the trail. Are his town halls even posted or excerpted? No [...]
The liberal bloggers have become McCain central.
To all the concerned people emailing me about "being played", don't waste your time. I'm not about to revert to writing puff pieces about Obama thinking that his magic "new politics" bullshit will carry us to victory. He may or may not believe that crap, but I don't. We're going to win this thing the way campaigns are won -- by playing hardball. Politics is a blood sport. Republicans understand this and never flinch from flinging the shit. We won't win until we learn to fight back in kind. And I'm more than happy to get down in the mud with our friends on the Right so Obama doesn't have to.
Recent history vindicates the "tough and aggressive" path. We went toe to toe against Rove and his machine in 2006, and our math beat his. I have no doubt we're in for a two-peat this year, and it'll happen because we won't back off from exposing the GOP for the den of lies and corruption it has become.
Now, I'm not going to give the Obama campaign a pass simply because they can't go negative or they ruin their "new politics" brand. That's why we have 527s, why we have VoteVets, why we have Planned Parenthood and other groups. The Obama campaign leaned on funders and told them not to give any of those folks a dime, zero. They killed lots of advertising that was coming the way of the blogs, and never replaced it. You can't destroy the Democratic party's ability to fight back, and then play the "our campaign can't fight back because it would ruin our brand, but you can!" game.
I'm happy to help the Obama campaign fight back. God knows, we'd love to fight back, and will. But I get a little annoyed when people castrate our best fighters and then 6 weeks before the election suddenly realize their mistake.
